The present application claims priority to Application No. 101 49 988.4, filed in the Federal Republic of Germany on Oct. 11, 2001, which is expressly incorporated herein in its entirety by reference thereto.
The present invention relates to a body pillar for a motor vehicle.
An A-pillar for an open motor vehicle is known from Mercedes-Benz type SL (R129), the A-pillar being put together from an inner and an outer profiled shell to form a hollow pillar. In this case, the A-pillar includes a wall pillar section and a roof pillar section angled with respect thereto, a reinforcing tube, which extends in the longitudinal direction of the roof pillar section into the wall pillar section, being fastened within the hollow pillar in order to avoid buckling of the roof pillar section if the motor vehicle overturns.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a body pillar for a motor vehicle, in which buckling of the roof pillar section if the motor vehicle overturns may be reliably avoided.
The above and other beneficial objects of the present invention are achieved by providing a body pillar for a motor vehicle as described herein.
In the case of the motor vehicle according to the present invention, the reinforcing tube is additionally supported in the angled transition region between the roof pillar section and wall pillar section by an end of a strut, as a result of which if overturning occurs, buckling, in particular at the lower end of the roof pillar section, may be particularly reliably avoided. Since the strut extends in the vertical direction of the roof pillar section, it may be particularly well-suited for absorbing an upwardly acting impact force if the motor vehicle overturns.
A particularly good bond between the reinforcing tube and strut may be provided by a reinforcement which is used to connect the two profiles to each other. In this arrangement, two reinforcing shells whose ends are connected in a form-fitting manner to the circumference of the associated tube may be provided. This structural unit may be pre-assembled in a simple manner and may then be fastened to the profiled shells before the latter are put together to form the hollow pillar.
The strut may be fastened with its one end particularly far up in a central region of the reinforcing tube if the strut extends in a slightly curved manner between approximately rectilinear end regions. The curvature of the strut is provided in the region of overlap with the reinforcement in order to increase the stability of the strut in this region.
The reinforcing tube and the strut may be produced in each case from a high-strength steel tube, the reinforcing tube, the strut and the reinforcement forming, e.g., a triangular framework. If the motor vehicle overturns, these measures may have the effect of achieving a smaller deformation of the pillar, a homogeneous pattern of deformation of the pillar without buckling and a dynamic restoration of the pillar as the load slackens.
Further aspects, features and details of the present invention are described below with reference to an exemplary embodiment and with reference to the drawing.